Wilibald Klinger

* 1941  †︎ 2022

  • "It simply came to our notice then. That was in 1946, when we were actually told that we were evicted and that we ought to pack our luggage to take with us. We didn't know where we go, what about it. An appointment was made, I remember, my sisters were sewing the blankets together to put the laundry and necessary things we much needed, because there was a limit fifty kilos per person. As they told us, on the day it was agreed, then the truck they arrived on arrived. And they took us to the camp, it was like a concentration, from where the other things taking place. And that camp was in Šluknov. I remember it as a child, I was five years old."

  • “After those ten years, there was a chance that we could buy our house, the old original one, our family house; we could buy it back. Then, when they evicted us, they actually confiscated all our property. We had nothing but what was in the packages we managed to také along with us. Even though in that camp, when we got there, I remember, they had such boards there and they dumped the bag for everyone, they checked it. And I remember Dad still had cigarettes in his pocket, he had a box, so they took it from him. He couldn't even have that. We were there like this. We survived all winter in the lager."

  • "My grandmother was then deported in 1945. All German families then had to leave their home where they were born, where they lived. As a child, I remember when my grandmother left, so the procession was one where those people were told in advance that they could pack fifty kilograms for what they could take with them. And left everything else at home. They were expelled and then we didn't even know about them, where they ended up, where their path came to an end. Only then, after a long, long time, did we get back in touch with where they really were, and we were able to connect them."

  • Full recordings
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    Rumburk, 10.02.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:29:17
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Their father’s work saved them from post-war deportation

Wilibald Klinger on vacation in America
Wilibald Klinger on vacation in America
photo: Archiv Wilibalda Klingera

Wilibald Klinger was born on August 14, 1941 in Velký Šenov. He comes from a German family, his grandmother was expelled after the war, along with other Germans. Wilibald’s parents were evicted in 1946. They waited for the transport in the camp in Šluknov for about three or four months. The family eventually returned thanks to Dad’s work. The family’s property, including the house, was confiscated, and they settled in Leopoldov. Ten years later, the family had the opportunity to buy their original house. He started working for the company named Stap, and got married in 1965. He and his wife settled on Vlčí Hora, where they also used to run a guest house. After the boarding house was sold, Wilibald began flying. He got an air license at the age of sixty. In 2022 he lived in the village of Vlčí Hora in the region of Šluknov. Wilibald Klinger died in a plane crash on November 12, 2022.